Emotions

If I find a relevant passage, I might post it later, but I've lately started noticing something about the nature of feeling. There seem to be two kinds. One is purely superficial. It may be nothing more than a chemical phenomenon of the body. That kind of emotion is what I would call a "qi disturbance." Qi rises up and gets into things where it shouldn't, and causes problems. If I relax and allow the qi to settle, this kind of emotion disappears. It may rise up again, depending on how attached I am to the emotional state, but I can still allow it to settle.

The other kind of emotion is deeper than that. It's so deep it seems to have no end. The love I have for my family is of this kind. It is large and all-encompassing: so large that I sometimes lose sight of it until something happens to bring it to mind. It is unconditional. No matter what minor disturbances arise (qi-emotions), that love is still there. A few friendships have risen to that level of feeling as well. It's so deep that I'm not sure it's even appropriate to call it an "emotion." Or maybe this is the only true emotion and all others are illusion.

I think when the Sufis say that "love of God is all," it's this kind of love that they mean. In this state, hate and intolerance are impossible. Those are qi-disturbances, not true emotions. They do not come from the heart.